THE DREAM IN ACTION

There is something that I’ve been struggling with a great deal recently and an article I read tonight by Paul Graham made the struggle even worse. The issue originated from my decisions surrounding what I should be reading, how I should be spending my “develop Ryan time” and what sort of further education I should pursue. The struggle I’ve been facing is this, “is it more important to know how to do or to do.”

This struggle also ties back to the motivation behind my other blog ActionsTalk. Often times I find myself discussing ideas, learning how to implement new ideas, and working to further develop those ideas but not as often do I find myself acting on those ideas. Maybe action is the significantly more important piece.

The example that comes most easily to mind is a web app. I always seem to have great ideas around new web solutions for all kinds of different life and business problems but I much less (almost never) find myself trying to develop (in the coding sense not the growth sense) these new ideas/applications. In this scenario I often question if I’m spending my time wisely. Just because I’ve read about hundreds of start-ups, tested hundreds of start-ups tools and apps, and could easily tell you all the do’s and the do not’s of starting a start up company doesn’t mean I’m any closer to starting one.

Paul Graham’s conclusion in the article was disturbing in that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand many of the how’s and what’s of the start-up process such as how to obtain funding, how do I choose a language and what are the capabilities of that language, and what are the most profitable idea industries. I haven’t spend as much of my time learning the languages, writing the code or actually “creating” anything. Paul’s contention is that you don’t need to know “business” to succeed in this process. You don’t need to know the process before you dive in. Well I’ve been spending much of my time on understanding and learning the process. If Paul is right, then that’s scary.

Maybe it’s time I stopped worrying about the start up industry. Maybe it is time that I pick up that PHP/MySQL book by my bed that’s practically unopened and begin to dive into the doing, the coding, the ever so important creation phase of this process. The learning will not stop it will just change. Now I believe the learning will be more applicable and a bit less theoretical.

Anyone who has gone through the process of transitioning from “reading about” to “doing”, I would love to hear your feedback on the experience and what conclusions you drew on Paul Graham’s theory.